RARE DUI DEFENSES Modesto, CA

Some DUI defenses almost never come up, but you need to watch out for them. It doesn’t matter what type of criminal defense attorney you are, the deck is almost always stacked against you, especially with DUI cases. That’s why it is important to be creative when considering your defenses.

Necessity and Duress-Modesto Drunk Driving Lawyers

In very rare drunk driving cases, an attorney may find the defense of “necessity” or “duress” to apply. When a defendant brings a defense of “necessity” he is basically stating that he had to choose between the lesser of two evils. This type of defense applies when someone is confronted by a natural physical force that is beyond his or her control that is almost certainly going to cause serious injury. The defendant is placed in a situation where he must choose the lesser of two evils. That is, he must break the law in order to avoid injury. An example of this might be a tornado that is about to strike. If someone is drunk and they are about to get hit by a tornado, then the law will allow them to drive to a safe location. The necessity of avoiding the greater harm of the tornado would serve as a defense to the drunk driving charge. This DUI defense doesn’t apply if the person had other legal alternatives or caused the situation which created the need to choose from the choice of evils.

The defense of duress is similar to necessity, however, it is caused by human rather than physical coercion. For example, let’s say you are all by yourself and someone is chasing you with an ax trying to assault you. You decide to get in a car and drive and drive to safe location, even though you have been drinking. The duress in this situation would serve as a defense to a DUI if a police officer were to pull you over and arrest you. The greater harm in this situation was clearly getting assaulted with an ax.

Entrapment-Modesto Attorneys California

A person is entrapped when he is persuaded or forced by police officers to commit a crime that he had no intent on committing. Let’ say a police officer asks or even orders you to drive a vehicle after you explain to him that you can’t because you’ve been drinking. Entrapment would serve as a DUI defense in this situation.

Contact a Modest DUI Attorney Today!

If you are interested in finding all the possible defenses to your DUI case, contact Modesto DUI lawyer Ben Roberts for a free consultation.